Guidelines for Contributors

Eclipse Earth is part of a larger worldbuilding project - The Infinite Library - and as such, contributors to Eclipse Earth are bound by the Infinite Library Contribution Agreement as spelled out on the Infinite Library website. This may seem daunting, but don't worry! The rules are really simple and ensure that Eclipse Earth and other worlds like it remain publicly available for anyone to use. Contributors to this wiki must also follow a few wiki-specific contribution guidelines.   Note that anyone who follows the Infinite Library Contribution Agreement is free to publish original material using the Eclipse Earth IP on other platforms, if they so desire. Any writer who does not agree with the moderation policies of this specific wiki is free to host and moderate their own Eclipse Earth wiki, provided that they do not plagiarize or directly copy any existing work.   If the proper rules and guidelines are followed, anyone can submit material to be included in Eclipse Earth.

The Infinite Library Contribution Rules

The following conditions apply to any material covered under the Infinite Library Contribution Agreement. All material posted on this wiki is covered by this agreement, as is any work derived in whole or in part from the material posted on this wiki. While I believe I am faithfully summarizing the relevant information here, the full text of the agreement is the official, enforceable version.   By submitting material to this wiki, you are agreeing to the conditions of the Infinite Library Contribution Agreement. In addition, submitting material to this wiki will, in most cases, automatically cover all of the terms.   You may, at any time, use material from this wiki for your own projects. If you do, you are responsible for ensuring that your work satisfies the terms of the agreement. Private, non-commercial use is already free, so the only work that needs examining is publicly posted work or commercial works.   The rules are:

1. Creating a derivative work using copyrighted material covered by the Infinite Library Contribution Agreement causes the Agreement to become binding on that work as well.
   
   
2. All work that falls under the Infinite Library Contribution Agreement is to freely allow derivative works. This does *not* include plagiarism, and only small quotes may be copied verbatim.
   
   
3. Commercial works covered under the Infinite Library Contribution Agreement may be sold, but a short synopsis of the work sufficient to allow derivative works to maintain continuity must be made publicly and freely available.
   
   
4. Anyone who does not wish for their work to be bound by the Infinite Library Contribution Agreement may opt-out of the Agreement by removing from their work all references to the Infinite Library or to material covered by the Agreement.
   
   

All this agreement means is that users who benefit from the publicly available nature of the Infinite Library must contribute back to the project by making their material available for others to build upon. Of course, by submitting content to this wiki, you are already publicly sharing your work, so that stipulation is covered. As the wiki's editor, I am responsible for ensuring the right notices and attributions are in the right places.

Eclipse Earth Wiki Contribution Rules

Contributing material to this wiki is meant to be pretty simple. After all, I want people to write material in this setting - that's the whole reason I created this wiki in the first place! However, there are a few things that would lead me to reject a submission. These reasons broadly fall into two categories: content and presentation. If an article is not up to a certain standard in either of these areas, as the editor I reserve the right to reject or (with your permission) to edit the submission.   As the editor and curator of this wiki, my aim is solely to make this website as fun and appealing as possible. This means that I want to display your article in its most favorable light, link it to related articles, and generally drive traffic to your work. When I suggest certain changes or additions to your article, I do so only out of a desire to help you succeed.

Formatting and Presentation

These rules serve to establish a certain quality standard for this wiki, and to assist writers in getting the best out of this website. To some extent, I can fix up articles that are not quite ready for publication, but only if you allow me to. I don't want to reject submissions, and following these guidelines helps me accept more of your work.

1. No stub articles. While I don't have concrete guidelines here for what constitutes a "long enough" article, articles that do not feel or look complete will not be accepted. If you have a good idea for an article but not enough content, feel free to post it on discord or on a discussion board as a suggestion. Someone else might see it and write a full article on the topic.
   
   
2. Stay on topic. While it is normal on World Anvil for articles to give a lot of backstory and peripheral information in an article, articles that stray too far from their titles will not be accepted.
   
   
3. Pre-format your article if you are able. While I am certainly able to add things like headers and title images to your article if needed, the submission process will go much smoother if you create those things yourself. The easiest way to create and submit articles for this wiki is to create them on your own World Anvil account and then export them. Another good way to create articles is to create them in google docs using the default format of title, headers, and normal text.
   
   
4. Give the editorial staff permission to edit, format and crosslink your article. Seriously. I won't do these things unless you tell me I can, but since I have more World Anvil experience than the average person submitting to this wiki, I will be in a much better position to polish up your article and make it match the rest of the Eclipse Earth wiki than most authors are.
   
   
5. If I reject your submission with some feedback for improvement, please listen. Chances are after some revision, I will accept your material.

Content

Assuming that submissions are formatted and presented well, there are really only a few reasons for rejecting an article based on its content. The first reason would be if the article was plagiarized. Another reason would be the author completely misunderstanding or misusing the canonicity system. Finally, content can be rejected because the author submitted material that is entirely a poor fit for the themes or tone of the world.   Canonicity, theme, and tone will be covered in more detail later, but for now, here are some guidelines that address the most likely problems with submission content.

1. No plagiarism. This was covered before, but it's worth saying again. Work found to be plagiarized will be removed from this wiki, and the author responsible may lose any trusted author privileges they previously enjoyed. Repeat offenders may be barred from submitting to the wiki.
   
   
2. Don't try to shoehorn in ideas. Work submitted to this wiki should mesh with existing characters, themes, and locations instead of thoughtlessly regurgitating the authors favorite material from another source. We're pretty lenient on this one, but works that don't feel like part of the world will naturally end up with less engagement from the community.
   
   
3. Pay attention to the existing material on the topic you're writing about. While there is always room for alternate or even clashing perspectives on an event, downright contradictions of established lore may suffer a downgrade in canonicity or outright rejection. Deliberately trying to erase someone else's material by contradicting things they wrote is prohibited and may result in being barred from submitting to the wiki.
   
   
4. No Clickbait or Deceitful Titles. Writers are not allowed to pose as other contributors or to present their work as being someone else's. Writers are also not allowed to give articles titles that do not accurately represent their articles.
   
   
5. Respect others' work. Give other authors space to tell their own stories without attempting to modify them. Don't interrupt another author's novel by attempting to add a chapter to it for them. Don't take another author's main character and write a story where they do things completely opposite to their established character. While you are certainly free to expand on and create derivative works based on others' work, the editorial staff reserves the right to refuse material they perceive as being rude to another author.

  As with formatting and presentation, submissions that only have minor flaws in this regard will probably be rejected with comments on what to change. Listening to these comments and making changes will usually result in your submission being accepted.